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What's Your Edge

Taylor Caby: Poker Blog

April 12, 2009

Alternate Title: I think I’m not turning Japanese. Tokyo was a memorable experience, to say the least. The Japanese culture could not be more different than the American culture. It’s funny, because as I’m reflecting on Tokyo, the cultural experience was very similar to what I expected yet that very fact continues to surprise me. I didn’t think it was possible for another culture of a very developed and technologically advanced nation to be so different than ours. Admittedly that statement just confirms my naivety about different cultures in general, but it’s the truth. I’m just going to write a stream of stories and thoughts from my Japanese experience.

Arrival: We took what eventually was close to a 14 hour flight on Saturday, April 4^th. We faced some heavy headwinds which slowed us down. I caught up on sleep during that flight, somehow sleeping for close to half of the flight even though I had a good six hours of sleep the night before. Scott (Irock) and Andrew had been out pretty much the whole night before so they were both hurting at the airport.

We landed in Tokyo and immediately realized we should have printed out more information about where we were going and how to get there. Much fewer people than I expected spoke any English at all, but luckily Andrew’s Iphone was working (mine wasn’t) and we got train directions to a stop near our hotel, where we grabbed a cab.

My first thoughts about Japan were “why is every tenth person wearing a mask?” We later dubbed these masks “Sub-Zero masks,” after the Mortal Kombat character, Sub-Zero. That’s what they look like, anyway. Eventually we learned Japanese people wear these masks when they are either sick or around other people that are sick. I think it’s more or less a polite gesture than anything else, as I don’t think that mask can really protect you. The most shocking thing to me is that I saw people pull down their masks to smoke a cigarette or drink a beer. Now let’s be serious here people, if you are sick you 1) shouldn’t be drinking a beer or smoking and 2) pulling that mask down renders it freaking useless in controlling the spread of germs. I wanted to find myself a mask but never saw one.

We got to our hotel at 4pm Tokyo time, roughly 17 hours after getting to the airport in Chicago. After a quick shower and a watching a few innings of the “Fighters” baseball team, Scott and I met Andrew in the lobby to go find some sushi. We walked down to the fish market which was about a 10 minute walk from our hotel, which was the Park Hotel in the Shiodome Media Tower. One cool thing about the Media Tower, and some places in Tokyo in general, is that there are walkways about three floors high. It’s almost like a city on top of a city, you can walk around to certain places faster and with better views than you could on the ground. It’s definitely something I wish they had in Chicago.

We stepped in some dive joint a few hundred feet from the water. It took us about 30 seconds to realize not one person in the place spoke a lick of English. They gave us a menu, which we couldn’t read, and then they gave us a picture menu, of which we really only knew what maybe 5-6 of the types of fish were (tunas, eel, shrimp, etc.). So we just decided to order the chef’s selection, I think it’s called chiriashi although I’ve heard of it called omakase in the States. We ordered some Kirins and the chefs started shouting random Japanese things. Throughout the trip, sushi chefs in Japan shout random things from time to time, particularly when you order beers. It’s actually pretty funny, I typically responded by shouting random things too to try to fit in. I think they found that humorous, but I’ll never really know.

They brought us our food and we started eating. We didn’t really know what a lot of the stuff was so it was time to just eat and see what happened. It was cool to eat fish that literally was just fished out of the water a few miles away, earlier that day or the day before, but it would have been nice to know what we were eating. I’d say about 2/3 of the stuff tasted good, and 1/3 was mediocre or downright bad. The one that sticks out in my mind as being bad was sea urchin. I didn’t want to offend any of the chefs at the bar so I pretty much decided I’d eat everything I put in my mouth, but that one was painful.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to wait for Anthony’s flight to come in. By this time it was like 9pm and we were all fighting to stay up as late as we could to try to get adjusted to Japanese time as fast as possible. I played some mindless 2-4 PLO to kill an hour or so until Anthony arrived.

When Anthony arrived, we walked outside and tried to find some bars in Ginza, a posh Japanese district with shopping and restaurants. I don’t know if we were in the wrong district or just the wrong part of it, but everything was basically dead. There were a few bars still open but they were all closing by 11 or 12, so after an hour of walking around we came home about 1130. Exhausted, I immediately fell asleep, hoping that I’d sleep through the night. Unfortunately, I woke up at 330 AM wide awake. I took some over the counter sleeping pills I got at CVS and passed out for the next 4 hours. Great decision to travel with those, I was almost fully acclimated to the time change within 3-4 days thanks to taking one of those anytime I couldn’t sleep and I should be sleeping.

Alright, that’s Day 1. I’ll probably combine some days at some point but I’m tired of writing now so I’ll check back ASAP!

Entry Tags:

Apr 13, 09 02:27:03

Sounds like an awesome time, keep the TR's coming.... one problem though... pics or gtfo imo.

Hokulea

Apr 13, 09 08:48:13

awesoem trip report; and yeah pics would be nice. they say sea urchin is an acquired taste and its def a delicacy among sushi. surprised u hadnt had it back in US! i agree tho the one time i had it i didnt like it so i havent ordered it since

jcl

Apr 13, 09 09:53:38

lol "sub zero masks" i can just imagine whiteboy wiggins walking down a street there take a picture of that

Playitlikeaset

Apr 13, 09 13:27:35

Sounds like a lot of fun, wish I was there!

Nookx

Apr 13, 09 13:46:50

Try Club Vanilla in the Rapongi district

SkinnyBrown

Apr 14, 09 00:21:18

A+ blog entry! You make me really jealous I'm not in Japan right now. Have fun

SixPeppers

Apr 14, 09 02:37:33

Sounds like your trip has been awesome so far! I hope you guys are crushing Thailand now. Tell AT high for me! I cannot wait for more updates! :)

desirae07

Apr 14, 09 22:48:44

I'm guessing nookx wished he was there.

MarkWahlberg

Apr 15, 09 10:56:30

Rapongi has lots of nightlife. it has a seedy reputation but i found it perfectly reasonable. also you HAVE TO have some tradition raman there. my favorite was tongkotsu (thats def not how its spelled, but i think how it sounds). it'll change your life :P

braminc

Apr 17, 09 12:48:25

awesome, i wish i went with you

David B

Apr 17, 09 12:48:33

awesome, i wish i went with you

David B

Apr 18, 09 14:48:02

Sounds very cool

Kara

Apr 19, 09 10:13:52

I want to see pictures of you guys with the masks + the hoods of your CR hoodies down.

One of you also needs to be sporting shades.